Information-related aid, including aid to libraries, is an area of technical assistance designed to contribute both to economic and to human development. Its role in economic development is heavily emphasized in the literature, but no major aid agency gives top priority to it and only a handful can be said to give it more than a low priority. The scope and nature of aid for information and library development are reviewed and the contribution of the major bilateral and multilateral aid agencies and non-governmental organizations is analysed. Different forms of library aid including consultancy, presentations and donations of new and used books and periodicals, gifts of furniture, equipment and buildings and the provision of education and training, are discussed. Political and social implications of library aid are considered.
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References
1.
Smith, Anthony.Reflections and refractions on the flow of information . Times Higher Education Supplement, 28 March 1980. p. 11.
2.
Thorpe, Peter.The impact of new information technology in the developing countries. Journal of Information Science, vol. 8, no. 5, June 1984. 213-220.
3.
Ibid. p. 219.
4.
Dosa, Marta L.Information transfer as technical assistance for development. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, vol. 36, no. 3, May 1985. 146-152.
5.
Ibid. p. 149.
6.
Ibid. p. 150.
7.
Ibid. p. 151.
8.
Rada, J.F.The microelectronics revolution: implications for the Third World . Development dialogue, vol. 2, 1981 . 41-61.
9.
op. cit. p. 151.
10.
The initial survey was carried out to provide data for a paper (not published) read to an audience of Third World librarians at the international seminar on developing library and information studies collections, at Aberystwyth, July/August 1984. A follow-up was conducted in autumn 1984.
11.
op. cit. p. 149.
12.
Buchanan, Keith.Reflections on education in the Third World . Nottingham, England, Spokesman Books, 1975. 80 p. ISBN 0-85124-112-3; or Dale, cited later.
13.
Amadi, Adolphe.African libraries: Western tradition and colonial brainwashing. Metuchen, Scarecrow , 1981. 265 p. ISBN 0-8108-1409-9.
14.
op. cit. p. 6.
15.
Canadian Organization for Development through Education.Annual Report 1983-84. CODE (nd). p. 7.
16.
Reported in: Regional Technical Aids Center project evaluation summary. USAID document PD-AAB-519-B 1. Washington, USAID/Bureau for Latin America, 1977.
17.
Dale, Roger.Learning to be... what? In: Alavi, H. and Shanin, T. , eds. Introduction to the sociology of 'developing societies '. Macmillan, 1982. pp. 408-421. ISBN 0-333-27562-4.
18.
op. cit. p. 112.
19.
Clow, David.Consultancy roles in library development. International Library Review, vol. 16, 1984. 5-20.
20.
Chambers, Robert.Rural development: putting the last first. New York, Longman, 1983 . 246 p. ISBN 0-582-64443-7. p. 10.
21.
Library Association Record, vol. 87, no. 1. January 1985. p. 21.
22.
CODE, op. cit. p. 12.
23.
Tocatlian, Jacques.Information for development: the role of Unesco's General Information Programme. Unesco Journal of Information Science, Librarianship and Archive Administration, vol. 3, no. 3, 1981. 146-158 (p. 151).
24.
Reported in Focus on international and comparative librarianship, vol. 16, no. 1, 1985. p. 11.
25.
For example: Inganji, F.K.Status of information and documentation services in eastern and southern Africa and future prospects. Bonn, DSE, 1983. DOK 1198 C/a. (vi), 128 p. DSE have also compiled a reader for use in the same area: Peters, Heidrun, ed. Library training in eastern, central and southern Africa: a reader. Bonn, DSE, 1982. SE25-62-82. (xvi), 467 p.
26.
op. cit. pp. 75-102.
27.
Some examples are reported in: New Internationalist, June 1985, especially pp. 8-9.
